June 3, 2011

NYC - Day 5

While we were exploring Central Park on Monday we came across the American Museum of Natural History, which is the Museum where they filmed ‘Night at the Museum’. Bauer thought that was pretty cool and they also had a big banner advertising their Dinosaur exhibit so he wanted to go. We figured that would be a good thing to keep us busy between the time we had to check out of the hotel and the time we had to leave for the airport.

Wow! It is absolutely GINORMOUS! We asked the security guard how long it would take us to go through it and he said “you could spend anywhere from 2 hours to 2 weeks.” He wasn’t joking. Honestly, I don’t know that even if you walked quickly without stopping to see anything if you could get through it in 2 hours. It is unreal the amount of stuff they have in there. From the time we walked in though, the only thing Bauer was interested in seeing was “Dum Dum, Me Want Gum Gum”. The big talking head from the movie that calls the main character Dum Dum. We didn’t have time to really stop and look at a whole lot but we did get Bauer’s picture with “Dum Dum” and we got to see the dinosaurs.

My favorite part of the museum was the bird exhibit. I hate birds. They’re boring and gross and just dumb. BUT… we walked through the exhibit and one of the first cases we came to was Booby Birds.

A little bit of background here: Bauer gets tended every Friday by my Grandma who is always teaching him all kinds of cool stuff. Well one day he came home with a picture of a Blue Footed Booby Bird. He thought that was pretty funny. Booby Bird…giggle giggle. Grandma had showed him a bird book and taught him about a bunch of birds and then he even drew a picture of the Blue Footed Booby. Check it out…pretty impressive for a 4-year-old I think. Heck, I STILL couldn’t draw one that well. Anyways, we got to see the Booby Birds in the exhibit. Then we walked down…owls…hawks…all kinds of random birds. Then we came to a case and Bauer said “oooh…is that a Ptarmigan?!” So I check the plaque next to it. Sure enough…it’s a Ptarmigan. Seriously kid! Then he proceeded to tell us how the Ptarmigan is so cool because in the cold and snow they turn white but when it’s warm they are brown or grey or whatever. I’m so amazed by the capacity of a child’s mind. How in the world does he remember crap like that?

We also learned in our little museum adventure that although the American Museum of Natural History was used to film Night at the Museum, it was only the outside that was used. The inside was filmed at another museum in a completely different state (I can’t remember which one). No wonder Dum Dum and Rexi were in different places than they are in the movie. Ha!

So anyways, that’s our vacation. We had so much fun. I sure love my boys. They were so much fun to be with.